CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Whenever the countdown hits zero, the booster engines light up and fire fills the flame trench, you're seconds from witnessing a spectacle of human inspiration and engineering genius climb into the sky and burn into your soul a memory you'll carry for years to come.

Rocketcam Video

Genesis' Boeing-built Delta 2 carried a rocketcam on its side, providing a stunning view of the liftoff and climbout through some clouds. Click here to see it. Plus look here to see some more incredible launch videos.

Every year we're witness to dozens of rocket launches and a handful of shuttle missions, each providing dozens of incredible pictures that tell their story. So at the end of the year, when it's time for picking an artificial limit of the ten best, it's nearly impossible.

Is it a gross understatement to say a lot happened in 2001?

The growth of the International Space Station from a collection of small modules to a frontier outpost easily seen from the ground could fill several photo albums, not to mention the many spacewalks and visiting missions to the station that each afforded dramatic views of people at work in and around Alpha.

Unmanned launches from around the world also gave us pictures of familiar shapes lifting off from deserts, jungles and ocean-going platforms -- but for the first time in 2001 we saw a blast off to orbit from an Alskan site where it is literally true that wild horses graze and buffalo roam near the launch pad.

So for better of for worse, here's an image gallery -- in no particular order -- of some of the better pictures representing some of the more memorable moments in the world of spaceflight during the past year. And if you don't see your favorite picture here, you can rest assured it was number 11 on our list and just didn't quite make the final cut.